Grounds covered by lawn or turf, especially those forming part of parks or sports facilities, such as golf courses, football fields, or racecourses, require special care and attention to ensure the correct distribution of grass cover and compactness of the soil. Specifically, the soil surface must be uniformly covered by turf and loose enough to allow good drainage, while at the same time remain compact enough for easy treading or to allow sports to be played thereon.
In lawn or turf areas, particularly those that experience sustained vehicular and pedestrian traffic, the turf surface and underlying soil can become undesirably compacted. The problems associated with soil compaction are that rain and fertilizing chemicals are prevented from fully penetrating the soil, which causes the turf area to remain soggy for longer periods after a rain and inhibits a deep and healthy grass root system and proper grass growth. Therefore, it is necessary to sufficiently loosen up the soil to allow efficient drainage and to allow nutrients to penetrate to the root system, which enhance the cultivation of grass.
Soil or turf aeration is the process of creating channels in the soil so that water, air, and fertilizers can penetrate the ground and be dispersed effectively throughout the soil. Such treatment of the soil can be carried out using appropriate implements or machines which make holes in the soil in order to confer the properties described above.
A number of soil aerating devices exist to try to solve the above problems. These devices may be self-propelled or linked to the power take-off (PTO) of a tractor and may be equipped with means for vertically articulating a plurality of aerating pins or spikes, typically referred to as tines. The holes can be made in a succession of steps comprising driving a mechanism having a plurality of arms (i.e., tine heads or tine holders), which can comprise a plurality of tines connected at the bottom end thereof, which are repeatedly inserted into and out of the ground (e.g., cycled or reciprocated) while the soil aerating device moves along the surface of the soil, which is typically covered by grass or turf.
However, prior art soil aerating devices incorporate aerating techniques that are too slow. For example, prior art tine heads typically contain a single row of tines extending downwardly therefrom. In order to form a tight or a closely spaced hole pattern, the soil aerator must cycle the tine head very quickly, resulting in the soil aerators experiencing high rates of wear-and-tear and high breakdown rates, resulting in frequent down time for repair.
Other soil aerators, which cycle at slower rates, must in turn, move across the turf surface at a slower rate, resulting in a slower coverage rate. In order to speed up the soil aerating process, some soil aerating devices use tine heads containing two or more rows of tines, which are generally referred to as “cluster blocks.” During operations, all of the tines in a cluster block are stamped or inserted into the soil in sequence, adjacent to (e.g., in front of) the previous set of holes created during the previous cycle of the tine head. In order to create a tight or a closely spaced hole pattern while using a cluster block, the tines that are held within the cluster block must also be tight or closely spaced. However, certain tine heads, especially cluster blocks, have too many tines within a small amount of space and can break off and/or lift sections of the turf upon entry and/or exit. To minimize such turf damage, the use of turf hold down guards are typically required.
A need exists for a tine head comprising multiple rows of tines for faster rate of coverage, wherein the tines do not damage the turf. A need exists for a tine head comprising multiple rows of tines that does not require the use of a turf guard. A need exists for a tine head comprising multiple rows of tines to form a tight or a closely spaced hole pattern in a turf without damaging the turf. Furthermore, a need exists for a method of performing soil aerating operations using a tine head comprising multiple rows of tines without damaging the turf. Lastly, a need exists for a method of forming a tight or a closely spaced hole pattern in the soil using a tine head comprising multiple rows of tines without breaking off and/or lifting sections of the turf upon entry into the soil and/or exit from the soil.
Embodiments usable within the scope of the present disclosure meet these needs.